council tax band G & H to double

[StrawberryThief1930]

has anyone seen the rumours that the council tax rates for bands G and H are going to double?

I know everything is just rumours at the moment but im worried this one might stick. easy to implement in an existing system and doesn't require the revaluation of thousands of houses etc.

I'm about to buy a G band house. Seriously questioning whether we can afford it. The current council tax is £4k a year. so £8k a year. Over £300 a month more than we had budgeted. we have spreadsheets coming out of our ears trying to check we can afford this house. Buying with a 40% deposit. im sweating...

anyone have the same worries? or further thoughts?

Well said. This whole thing makes my blood boil

excellent post, sums it all up exactly.

They are basically out of ideas, welfare, NHS etc. needs to be cut, have a look at how much nursing agency staff earn -

https://nursingguild.com/benefits/pay-rates/

Stamp duty should be on the seller, that taxes some of the "unearned wealth" from rises in property values, would it discourage people from selling though? CT is a non-starter, if implemented they will U-Turn when the first stories about older vulnerable people being hassled by debt collectors hit the headlines, it will be like the threat to sack nurses who didn"t get their "jags", very bad look and the sort of thing that can bring down governments (as if this one needed any more reasons to be ousted?)

A duty tax is on the buyer

It if it is a significant amount, it eats into the money they have available to buy, so the seller gets less.

Which is why housebuilding firms pocketed a fortune in unexpected profits when stamp duty was cut. They put up their prices to soak up the extra.

So just call it a tax and make the seller pay? That way you now have a property wealth tax.

I don’t see it as unearned wealth as it costs so much to buy another property

i would rather the prices were lower so the SD wouldn’t be so high and it wouldn’t be so hard to buy another property

the only people who benefit is the government to waste

Much the same as my previous reconfiguring on here of how council tax should be calculated. The concept of which I am all in favour of

A policy such as the one you are suggesting though could only apply to those who haven’t already paid the tax at point of purchase. Noting of course your pps on fairness
Thats not going to bring in money now .

@Sunflower2461 , the proposal is that you do not have to pay the additional tax until you move or die but if you choose not to pay as you go what you owe will have interest added when it’s paid. Effectively an additional death duty or penalty for living in the south of the country.

Such a cheek

If you are downsizing that is unearned wealth in the back pocket, that is a good starting point for a "wealth tax" IMO. Of course with borrowing rates up (and probably going higher if they fluff this budget) many people can"t sell to downsize so none of it really helps the mess the country is in.

Sellers could get the original amount refunded, if they bought the house 20 years ago they would still be paying some tax now?

Where did you read this proposal?

The problem with that proposal is that it doesn"t raise revenue now, how are they going to raise revenue now?

@PigletJohn , it’s been widely reported across many outlets.

Getting repayment then paying again all sounds rather desperate to try to justify this new idea. That’s before we even try to justify how much would even be returned ie calc on inflation, loss of interest to buyer and gain to Hmrc etc etc etc
Complexities and the high cost in running this idea ( albeit high costs perhaps only for 20 or so years perhaps ) make it a non starter. Labour are interested in making big bucks now

On your other point
How would they still be paying it now.
I first bought 2000 no idea how I paid tax ??? on it for so long

Agree
That’s just nonsense and immoral to add interest on a new tax hundreds of thousands won’t be able to afford to pay.
Yep….just more IHT

Perhaps care home fees will all be paid by next of kin next. Can’t pay it, never mind Hmrc will take it when you die and add interest aswel. No money. Oh dear. Wait for the grandkids to die and let’s keep on with that interest. 🤣🤣🤣

Why are we calling it unearned wealth? Tax should be on the buyer like most other products.

The only reason the government have suddenly decided that the paper increase in your houses value is “unearned wealth” is because it gives the government an easy way to whip up public support for squeezing homeowners while pretending it is some grand act of fairness. There is nothing that the lazy, ignorant and jealous love more than a good dog whistle! If enough homes had been built in the right places over the last twenty years, would most of these properties have risen so sharply in value? The rise in prices has been driven by a chronic shortage of supply (thanks the the government and house builders), not because individual homeowners have somehow done something selfish and morally questionable by buying a place to live in.

I would love to think people would push back, but we have cultivated a culture where personal responsibility and basic gratitude have quietly exited the room. You now have parents of disabled children proudly announcing that they are doing the state a favour by looking after their own children. You have people complaining that they cannot go to soft play because they are struggling financially after voluntarily choosing part time, lower paid work, knowing it will be topped up by the state. They have chosen to do this because they are entitled to stay at home and enjoy their children whilst the children are young. Todays compassion is people telling posters who are hanging on by the thinnest of threads how lucky they are because they are hanging on.

Add in a bit more dog whistling to whip up public enthusiasm for anything framed as punishing the supposedly wealthy. We saw it with VAT on private schools. Huge numbers of people swallowed the narrative without hesitation. It is no longer a question of 'how can I work towards something'. It has become a question of why should anyone else have it if I do not.

Once they are finished punishing homeowners the focus will shift to pensions, and after that it will be savings in the bank and so on until there is no more middle England. The villain of the story will simply be updated, but the plot will stay exactly the same. Punish the responsible. Reward the resentful. Pretend it is fairness. Every responsible behaviour that used to be encouraged will be repackaged as yet another form of selfishness and unearned advantage. Because lets face it anyone who planned for their future did so at the expense of everyone who did not.

The cost of the property to buyers is not just the amount people pay for it on completion
So again
A complex calculation and without prior notice to buyers and sellers almost impossible to accurately assess how much the property actually cost. (for eg, think mortgage and interest payments )

Of course I wouldn’t put anything past Reeves. She and hers have proved they think 2+2=imaginary impossible figure leading to economic disasters

plus the cost of renovations.

But if every seller pays it, then you won’t have to consider that in your onward purchase, so it evens things out.

Pros - it encourages those at the start of the ladder to hop on. Helping people when they likely need it most. Also encourages sellers to keep sale price as low as they can to reduce the tax.

Cons - it will slow the market (maybe that a good thing though to get house prices back under control and see houses as a home, not an investment. What happens to those in negative equity or who can’t afford to pay it? Stuck in unaffordable homes, presumably accruing more and more debt.

Exactly
This unearned wealth that everyone’s hanging on is Labour whipping up envy
Its not even viable to calculate and utter nonsense

Agree stamp is a tax on the purchase of property
just as we pay tax on anything that we buy

Changing the system opens up so many questions about whether the seller of all sorts of things should pay the tax.

so buy art…artist pays the VAT
buy a sheep…farmer pays the VAT

All sounds so much more stupid now doesnt it

Yes exactly

as I’ve said before there is lots of other money being given to people who could be working or people not paying taxes they should be, that is unearned